G'day Legends and kaya. Welcome to the AustralianTeach English Podcast, the podcast by language learners with language learners, or language learners. My name is Glen, and I'm here today with my friend from Japan, Reka. Did I say correctly?
Completely fine, mate Thanks.
Thanks. Excellent, excellent. And she is a chip off the old block, as you are going to discover during this episode, as well. And so we're here today to talk about chips and expressions with chips, and language with chips, which is a nightmare for not just learners of English and other languages around the world, but can even be confusing for native speakers as well. So welcome to the show, Reka.
Oh, thanks for that. Thanks for having me there, Glen.
Not a problem, so. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself where you're living now how you came to be living where you're living?
Yeah. So at the moment I live in sort of like a midsize town. So think of like, if you're from my home state of Victoria, you can think of maybe like a Bendigo sized town perhaps, in the east of Hiroshima Prefecture. So if you imagine we have Hiroshima city in the bay, and it's like 30 kilometers out from Hiroshima towards these called Higashi Hiroshima, which is literally Eastern Hiroshima. And then there's this little kind of ??? here. And, yeah, it's a very cold environment at the moment. But it's...t's sort of like a very, I mean, they would probably call it a rural town, even though I wouldn't reckon it's really a rural town. It's sort of like a nice little...
Not rural like Australia anyway.
Not really like Australia, you're not gonna call it rural. But it's a very, very lovely little town with a lot of character. And quite a lot of local history, a legend surrounding it, which locals are very proud of, understandably, it's very sweet.
Yeah. Okay, fantastic. And so you've been living there for for how long now?
Oh, since 2015. So slowly.....Yeah, this year is going to be 8 years, yeah.
Yeah. So quite a long time. So fantastic effort for that for being over there for that long. But you are you are very well traveled. Where were you living before Japan?
But yeah, so I'm from the Melbourne Victoria back in the day. And since my parents were both Hungarians, we decided as a family unit to sort of move back to Hungary when I was 18. So I went to uni there. I lived in the South of Hungary in a city called Pecs for a while. Then I got into uni. And I went up to Budapest and I did my uni there, met more wonderful people there. Actually improved my Hungarian quite a lot. So I had some basic Hungarian but it was a bit poor, regardless of my name being full Hungarian but it improved, and I started learning Japanese, started teaching English there. And met some Japanese people got a chance to come to Japan and ended up here. And I quite love, landed in Hiroshima. And I quite love Hiroshima, honestly.
Yeah. So so your story has really taken you around the world called quite quite literally.
Quite a triangle.
Yeah, yeah. But you that you were born in Australia, is that correct? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's interesting, because I, yeah, cause I couldn't pick your accent. And probably a lot of people listening are probably going to have difficulty with your accent because I couldn't pick where your accent was from. And this is like quite a common story when people get to Australia, is they don't realize the variety of accents that will actually experience and in your case, you're the daughter of Hungarian immigrants to Australia, you've gone back to Hungary and now living in Japan. So you have all these different influences on your accent.
Yeah. Yeah, that's really, that's really it.
So how many languages do you actually speak now?
Well, I would say probably two and a half. But I am working on it to probably pull it up to like a three. I did start also learning Spanish and Chinese next to it, but I've simply not had the time recently. So I'd like to fall back on those. But those are nowhere near speaking ability level just yet. So yeah.
So how did you find then going back to learning Hungarian?
I think I was at a quite a privileged place honestly. So I was really, really lucky that my parents were the type of Hungarian immigrants who didn't hate their own hometown. One country at home language, mother tongue, unfortunately, due to the political situation at home, and the difficulties back home, a lot of Hungarian immigrants go to the new country and then try their best to forget Hungarian and Hungarian culture. And they decide not to teach their children that. So I've met a lot of Hungarian diaspora of my own generation in their 30s, who have Hungarian names, they're fully Hungarian, and they know something of the culture, but they have absolute zero ability other than to recognize a bit of a couple of words. And I never thought about it at the time, but now I've grown up I'm incredibly thankful for my parents for knuckling down on that and saying, like, "yeah, we'll you will learn Hungarian, what'd you do in the future, you can decide if you don't like it, you can leave it if you want to change your name, because you hate it, that's fine. When you're 18, you do what you want. But we're gonna give you this and then you can decide what to do with it." Happily, I did realize that it's a massive gift to be having that ability to be bilingual and being able to see the world from two different perspectives, basically, and meeting other diaspora who, for example, gentleman from Canada, who had the exact same situation as myself, and I met him in Budapest in a tea house. And him saying that "I'm really trying to learn Hungarian, but everyone's speaking to me in English, because they want to practice English. And it's nice, but I'm also Hungarian, and I want to connect, reconnect. So it makes it more difficult." So I think in that sort of sense that I was really privileged that I had enough where I didn't really have to buckle down on study, I just had to sort of like, sit down, and I had to work extra to get through my Hungarian textbooks in uni. Because it just took me that much longer to work through it. But it was really worth the time and the effort to do that. So honestly, I would say I didn't really study Hungarian, I just simply got the chance to push through and attain a proper level of it that I would have had in the native environment, if I had stayed in Budapest, or my parents had met in Budapest, but definitely having that sort of like a bizarre situation where you meet people of your own age, which is of your own culture on on your own age. And them commenting. Oh, Your accent is so cute. Your accent is so cute. And the penny drops
Where are you from....? Yeah.
Not just that, but when are you from becomes the thing. I'm speaking like my parent's generation. And so that was a very bizarre thing. And I was horribly embarrassed at the time. But grand grandmothers love me. They love that I spoke the so called slightly older style Hungarian, simply due to my parents influence and me not hearing anything else.
Yeah, it's really interesting that we don't give a lot of credit to changes of accents. Yeah, throughout throughout generations. And yeah, one of one of the biggest arguments against sort of prescriptivism is that languages change. Now you can hear the changes of languages in the same population, just with different people. I mean, especially in Argentina, the people that sort of dance tango who are 80 years plus have a completely different vocabulary, to almost every everyone else, it's really quite, quite unusual. So people underestimate this, this fact. But how has this sort of informed your teaching how has growing growing up in this sort of environment, informed the way that you you take on languages now that you also teach languages now?
I would probably say that it really pushes me towards the practical teaching aspect of it. So for me, I'm not particularly gifted in linguistics, I am not. My major at uni was actually physics. So I do not in any way, shape or form understand the humanities really, other than the fact that I might be human. So that's, that's the closest I can get to that. Unfortunately, when I hear like proper proper teachers, as I call them, and proper linguists talking and I'm, like, I said, "that's the name of that thing". Okay, I sort of recognized that in the field. But I think I do think of it as sort of like the difference between, let's say, like, a zoologist at the university and the geologist who goes out and actually observes the behavior of the populations they're looking at. And I don't know the fancy names of a lot of these things. I try to remember them, but I'm not good at that. But it is an interesting thing that I can sort of relate to how they pick up the language, if that makes sense.
So there is there is an expression amongst sort of teachers or a saying amongst teachers, that the best teachers come from different fields that aren't teaching they do something else.
In my case, it might be but it is one of those things that I see that I can...The best thing I can usually do is model and I think any sort have teaching in any sort of field modelling becomes incredibly important. Like, yes, it is difficult, but it's difficult for everyone. I may look like I know a lot, but I'm also a hack and a fraud. So, you know, and when students sort of see that and try to see the relatability of it's not just me in front of the old master, like I'm not Palpatine, there looking at the young sis type of thing. It's more like y'all know what I'm doing. I'm trying to understand something so that I might look like I know what I'm doing. But actually, we're learning together how to approach this and solve this as a as a goal for you. So my goal becomes leading you towards your goal, I know where you should be, because I know the rubrics, I know these things. I know how to sort of approach each grammar point what they mean. But 50% Me and 50%, you meaning that every single journey we take is going to be different for each student.
Yes, I'm always confused by by language language teachers that have never actually learnt another, another language. I find that...I find quite suspicious. Really, you should be very suspicious, or any, any language teacher that isn't at least trying to learn.
Exactly. I mean, I wish I wouldn't have been so brave to put it like that. But I do have an inkling suspicion in the back of my head when I see that. I do agree with you
So now you're taking on Japanese. And I mean now, I've been learning Chinese for well, loosely, learning Chinese for a for a number of years. And the biggest the biggest challenge obviously, with this is that learning learning other characters.
Oh, yeah.
So what do you think the biggest challenges are for, for students learning another character language, whether it's from Japanese to English or English to Japanese or Chinese to English or English to Chinese? What do you think are some of the big the big obstacles with this?
I think the biggest obstacle is usually fear. I want to say, the actual looking at something that looks completely alien is of course going to be gut wrenching is like, "Am I really capable of this? Do I really want this?". The whole self denial is really a cycle people go through, and I recognize it on myself and I recognize it on my students. I even got my mom start learning Chinese for my nephew. And she went through a whole cycle of like, maybe like two or three years? "Oh, no, I can't do it. Oh, no, I'm too old. Oh, no, no". And she's like, "I saw, I saw someone who was maybe Chinese. And I said nihao." And I'm like, good on your mom. Good job. Yeah, you do it. And that's what you think once you get through that, that brain pays off sort of like hearing the non existent consequence of failure, then you're golden, then it's just step by step. And once you realize that there is no consequence to failing in this, because every failure is actually a success, you've learned something that you didn't know was a possibility of a mistake before? And why would that be a bad consequence? If nothing else, that's a success, because you won't do it again, or at least you'll do it less. So...
And it's really the same thing. And that's really the same in learning any language?
Exactly. Yeah, it's like what we do when we grew up learning our own language, our parents will say, like, "don't say that, that was rude". Or that it's the same thing, like we survived that, you know, it's like, of course, it's natural. Same thing is here. So like, when I see like a, like a new character, I think it has a story. And I think imparting the idea of a character having a story of being a point of interest. And understanding that it's, it's part of the, of the, of the world of the language, if you don't have the writing skill, if you don't have the reading skill, you're missing out on a lot of things that you will be really ashamed to miss out on. And it helps you understand the spoken language as well. I really do believe that I could be wrong, but that's my impression of it at least.
Yeah, I think that's really, really important point. And also creating stories and making stories is also like a an actual recognized way of learning.
Oh, yeah.
Learning learning anything doesn't doesn't matter if it's, if it's languages or if it's, or if it's physics. I think there was actually quite a famous physicist. What was his name? Feynman?
Feynman? Yeah, yeah. Feynman. Yeah.
He was famous for actually demonstrating physics principles, by creating stories of children's on swings or whatever it was to make things actually seem real and visible and and in front of you.
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. The more part the more visual or the more audio or the more immersive, I suppose is the more general word but basically what that boils down to is visually, you can make something, the better. Like these Japanese characters, one can look at them. And they are very imposing because they are very different. But when you boil it down to the idea of being not a pronunciation guide, but a visual idea guide, then you suddenly understand, this is not difficult. This is probably how people started writing in the first place. So everyone can do this, because all writing came from this style. So back in the day...
A mountain looks like a mountain kind of looks like a person that it's sort of fundamental level.
Yeah. And when you put them together, it's really cool. Like the sign for book is basically a cut tree. Because you make books of the tree.
Yes, it's actually it's similar...It's similar in Chinese as well. It's probably where it where it came from. Yeah, I think is the I don't like saying that word, because it's bad luck.
But it's really cute. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that story to it. So it's really charming and interesting.
Yes. So story. Storytelling is anything that you can do. And this is also one one thing for from for memorization as well. Yeah. That all the memory champions use this technique. Yes, they go for a walk. And they put things on, on places that they regularly see whether it's if they're walking around their block, or driving in a car or whatever, they put different words or different whatever. And in different positions as they as they go along. And so this is something and I tell my students that they can do as well. Think of that tree that's just outside your home and put different words that describe that tree on that tree. So every time you see that tree, then you're thinking, okay, leaf, green, stem trunk, whatever it is.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I usually tell my students when you're walking around, just talk about your environment in the language your goal is, so say, like, "Oh, look at that car". And like, Ah, so not so (Japanese) and then you pick it up very quickly, because it's like, you're talking with your inner person, like we do that anyway, most of the time.
I'm sorry, what did you say in japanese?
That because that kind of car is rather interesting. So. So yeah, if you go like that, sounds really interesting. And you tried to instead of saying it, like, I will say it in English, like, oh, that's, that's, that's an interesting car. Instead of saying that like that, trying to like, "Okay, I need to stop that. And I need to sort of code switch into the new language". And you will have a bunch of mistakes, like I'm constantly ironing them out. But they're getting less and less so. And that's again, one of those natural things that you'll pick up like no need. Yeah, no native speaker has zero mistakes either. So...
And it happens both ways as well. For example, I think during the week, I was teaching some of my Chinese kids the pronounciation with OU letters. The diagraph OU. And they were tearing their hair out going well, how do we know which one of the seven sounds and I was like, yeah, no, I don't worry. I'm 100% sympathetic to you. Like I understand.
We went through elementary school through, guys, we understand.
You're completely understand this is something that's like, that we were doing to make fun of. So then I said back to them, Well, how do I know the pronounciation when I'm looking at, like Chinese characters, and they went ooooo. And so we've actually sort of got talking about that. And they were like, oh, okay, you know, this is not something that's exclusive to me or exclusive to the language it's just exclusive. It's just a part of learning language.
It's just us. Yeah, we've not figured it out but it's part of the challenge, like you we make silly mistakes and they can be very amusing things Yeah. And we have to enjoy that and use that as a memory function to like for example I do remember very strongly the embarrassment but it was very, very funny that I wanted to say the word for sheep, which is (Japanese) but I have a problem my my my s sounds and my esh sounds are a little difficult for me to say boss it's just my personal thing. And I said (japanese), which is Butler so I wanted to say what a cute sheep and I have the saying that's a cute butler my Japanese friend was like "what?"
That, a classic thing with with learners of English would be between say, beach and bitch, sheep and ship. Sheet and shit. Like these are all sort of like they're very very similar and how that goes and you just have to accept well, okay, it's just one of those being laugh about this. Yeah.
You're gonna laugh about it. It's like my my It's a favorite one in Japan is that they like saying the word Cook as caught cock. So when you hear a bunch of children going, like my father is a Cocker and I'm like, okay, maybe I cannot judge but let's just say cook. Okay?
And you don't know, you don't know if they're taking the piss out of you, or they're actually....
Oh, they have absolutely no idea. Because that's how they say it. In the end. They have a loaned word in Japanese for cook. And they say cocku. For whatever reason it that's how they brought over the phonics of it. So they think they're like, Oh, I recognize that, well, that's English. Cocku is English. I'm like it is but it's not that word. But, you know, charming. So just, you know, I usually just sit like, okay, not quite right, let's just say cook. Okay, let's move on.
So, so definitely sounds like your a chip off the old block when it comes to approaching learning languages and sort of doing it in a in a relaxed way, with little pressure, you know, in sort of, in informal, informal ways. So that's, you know, an example of how we would say you're a chip off the old block. And, and as we're getting to now, expressions, or using the word chip or chips is extraordinarily difficult for learners of English and even between speakers of English themselves. So this is something that you were thinking about talking about in the show today, because at the moment, you've got friends from England and the United States and whatever and this little simple word, four letter word is causing some some dramas.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We do love to rip at each other a bit. So yeah, you know, we got, we got a little friend group here. And, you know, there's me as an Aussie. There's my mate, he's from Wales, we have another mate from South Africa. There's another bloke from the US. And you know, we all have our own little turns of phrases, but the chips are forever a thing. If we were out or eating of, you know, a pack of chips, or ordering some chips from Maccas then it's always one of those things is like, "Oh, I'd like some chips. You want some chips?" "Chips? Those are fries". And I'm like, "no, no chips". Fight me boy, you know. And it's a good one.
And if you for are from New Zealand they are chips, chips.
Yeah, it's a chips. Yeah. So it's one of those things where, you know, we know it's a nice thing to sort of like, like, like rattle on about and sort of poke fun at each other for a fun one.
Yeah, it's a bit of banter.
Yeah, definitely. Definitely a good one.
Though, I don't usually concede defeat when it comes to Australian English. But in this case, I think the people taking the piss out of us probably have a little bit more leg to stand on than than the other countries because we generally call everything chips.
Yeah, it's fair go all around. So that's chips, this chips, that chips done. We don't have to complicate things with fries.
Except we just confuse everyone else.
Yeah, like, like, if I'm confused, everyone else is gonna be confused. So I'm just gonna leave.
So then, what are the different words for the different chips then?
I mean, definitely, my American friends do like using the word fries.
French fries for french fries, oily ones that are fried in oil. That stuff.
Yeah, we use those. We use wedges here in Australia. Well, yeah, we use them sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that....
Sour cream and sweet chilli sauce
Oh, man. Good stuff. Yeah, there's some good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I can go.
The other funny ones. Yeah. The other funny one would be crisps.
Ah, yeah.
Cause I think...
I don't think I naturally use crisps honestly.
I think that's a very British one.
That's british. Yeah.
And I think in in the United States, chips are what the British would call crisps. French fries are what we would call chips. Chips. Yeah. But in Australia, we call everything chips, we call crisps. Chips. Yes, we call french fries, chips. And sometimes even we might call wedges, chips as well. So everything is just everything is just chips.
Simplified. It's elegant, elegant simplicity.
Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure it's that clear to all the listeners out there. I'm thinking they're thinking "thanks, Glen, that's really cleared it up". Absolutely, absolutely not.
I mean, absolutely. It's just welcome to Australia. We don't know what we're doing either, but at least we're relaxed about it. It's like, let's see how this goes, that's fine. If you like it cool. If you don't like it good luck next time, you know, it's.
Yeah. So we were actually talking about this before how languages often throw up these confusing terms, we may name the same thing. Or we have the same name for different things. And in English chips is a classic example of this. And even in Spanish, I can think of, like, the crisps, or what we would call crisps that in Argentina, at least I would call papas. But the French fries, they were called papas fritas, which is, you know, fried fried potatoes. But papas can just be like potatoes as well. So that doesn't really make make things clear either. Can you think of any examples like that in, in Hungarian or any other languages where Ithe same word.
In Hungarian I feel like it's not too bad in Hungarians a bit....For one of a better word anal about being precise. Like I think a bit a good way of of sort of like illustrating it is that the word for Hungarian the word Hungarians use for themselves is called (Hungarian). And that's the same word we use for to explain (Hungarian). So to be a Hungarian is to explain (Hungarian). Yes, exactly. If someone is Hungarianing, they are over explaining something. So this is literally how we're explained. That's how we how we explain ourselves. So we're quite wordy. So not I can't think of any off the top of my head, we have some things like like light bulb, but in like in English, as well use the word bowl, we say, pair, like pair, but because of the word light in front of it, it doesn't really make it so ambiguous, that I can think of off the top of my head. Japanese, on the other hand is very difficult. It's very high context. So there's a lot of words, for example, you have the word for flower, called Hana. And you have the word for nose, which is Hana. And then it's highly on the context of the sentence. And sometimes it's not that clear. Or you also have the word for bridge, which is hashey. And you also have the word for chopsticks, which is hashey. So if you say you use the Hashi....So which one did you use? Right? So it's it depends highly on the context of the language of the Japanese language itself is very high context. And a lot of the time this makes it very difficult for learners could because you will, you can understand if you have a sort of like an unnatural, like listening, exam or listening practice in that isolation of the classroom, the moment you go out and you start hearing people talk. You if you use me as a foreigner, I think my Japanese is okay, I can really get by, I can change my utilities contracts on phone and stuff. So I can get by. But if I moshi, moshi, which is kind of cute. Because moshi kind of sounds like washing Hungaria. So I think it's incredibly hilarious. Just like I just washed my face. So it's that's an interesting, easy one to remember. But it's but it's when you step into a middle of a conversation. And you don't have that context. It's very difficult to jump into the whole conversation, which is very interesting in terms of the culture because Japanese people don't like to be interrupted and they don't like to jump into conversation. And I wonder if that's not connected with the two. Because they will often complain about English people responding to them before they finish talking. They....
You are missing context. Yeah.
Yeah. But in English, you don't need to wait for the full context to sort of understand in fact, we want that look of interest by interrupting a bit. But in Japanese, it's like, don't, don't even try. It's like
it's a sign of rudeness.
Even if you don't understand you just like Mmhmm. Could you explain that again? Basically.
Rather than interrupting the three or four words in and saying I sorry, I don't understand. They'll wait for you to finish and then say I didn't understand a word. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So in that sense, that's sort of like a similar thing. It's like that misunderstanding of like, even if there is like that similar issue of like, okay, well, chips, chips and chips. Even if you don't understand what they're talking about, you're going to wait until the end and then you're going to ask for them. So I find interesting thing
I find find it interesting like with this because, like these days because I'm I'm wheelchair bound, and I get some good some help in. And I have like a lot of Kenyan Kenyan workers. And in Swahili, the word for for chips is chipsy. Okay, but yeah, but for them chipsy is french fries. So if I say like, if I say get some chips out of the pantry, they will get really confused. They won't actually know what I'm talking.
Yeah, yeah, there'll ???
Yeah, exactly. And instead of saying, actually, I don't know what I'm looking for. It's really quite interesting. It took me quite a while to to realize what was actually happening here. It wasn't until I actually learned what their word for for chips, actually was that I understood that confusion.
Yeah, this is I think one of those things, that is a really, really important point to make. I know. For myself included, it can be quite frustrating when you're starting out the language and you have these confusions and you don't realize the point of confusion. So people usually tend to take it on themselves, like, "oh, this person is trying to screw with me". And it's not it's just an honest confusion thing, because something that's very obvious to us, is very obviously not obvious to them. I think this example is really good that chips, chips and chips, like even a native speaker between native speakers between themselves could get frustrated. It's like, hey, the chips I told you about the chips. Like why would I need to
Speak the real English please.
Yeah, right. What is this nonsense? What is this recieved pronounciation? Go home. What is this nonsense? Get out of here? Like, you know, it's like, it's like, yeah, the chips mate, not the chips. Could not be easier.
Exactly. Whatever. You understand me, are you some kind of idiot.
exactly. Well, back on that up until you realize it from the other perspective is like, like you mentioned that chipsy one. That makes a lot of sense. It's like, oh, yeah, that does make sense. I'd be really, really confused myself.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then I was like, whoa, what do you like? Do you have a word for corn chips? Oh, and they were like thinking and they were like, "No, I don't think we do" it like so. It was...Exactly. So it's kind of interesting. Like, what? Yeah, what words are developed in the language in which ones aren't specifically because whether or not they're, they're actually being used or not being used? Like if they have some kind of actual practical application? Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Like, I mean, it's like being bilingual myself, like with my friends who are also bilingual or more, or my family members, like if, if, if it's, if it's something that is easier to be explained in English, we will talk in English, but if it's easier to talk about it in Hungarian, we'll talk about in a Hungarian. But then now in Japan, I have friends who are trilingual, like, like more than myself, because their Japanese is far better. But again, we will switch to Japanese when it's something that's specifically Japanese that we don't really know how to explain properly the other two language. So there are things like that, that just can't be explained. But it's just too much of a bother easier to switch, to switch, you know, the other person will know anyway, so very interesting.
So we ended up getting like, we end up having you know, hungrish, Spanglish, or Engrish or any any of these. Although that can be it can also be hilarious at that at the same time to show for many, many different different reasons.
Oh, good, fun.
So so what what are some other expressions that we can think of with the word chips?
Ah, I mean, of course, my favorite one is chippy, but I mean, that's very closely connected to the chips though.
Ah, but a chippy could be but also in Australia, a chippy could also be, what could a chippy also be?
Chippy would be with the fried chips though?
No, it's job. It's a carpenter.
Oh, that's true. Yeah, that's another chippy, right. For quite, I was like, chippy I was like, pinchy puppets. Hell yeah. That makes sense. Yeah.
Yeah. Someone that works with wood wood that actually literally takes chips off. Blocks.
Yeah, your wood chips, right. So yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, paint chips, wood chips. But again, it's kind of Like the same pattern, right? Something that is broken off in that certain way will be will constitute a chip, right?
Yeah. I mean, chippy is sort of slang for for fried chips, I guess. Yeah. If suddenly someone was to say to me chippies I wouldn't be thinking like, fries basically or think or at least thick fries. Yeah.
I would say so. Yeah, yeah. Something you buy off the street street food type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
What other chip expressions...
Oh, what other can we think of? So? Well, you did mention chip off the old block.
Chip off the old block
Right? That's a good one. That's a nice one, though. I kind of feel like that's a very, very friendly way of describing someone. That's a really, really very...
And usually usually we do or when it's like a polite thing as well. We wouldn't be in that they wouldn't ever say like you're a "You're an asshole. You're a real chip off the old block."
Depends on the convo, doesn't?
Almost always been when you're talking about something positive. I can't think of like a circumstance where you would do it in a negative in
A sarcastic way. Maybe? Yeah. Aren't you a chip off the old block? Okay, cut me off in the label. Yeah. Yeah. Ah, yeah. Chips, though.
Yeah, I'm thinking more gambling ones. Now, I'm thinking, the gambling when the chips are down when the chips are on the table.
Chips on the table? Yeah. Yeah, those are good ones too.
It reminds me of a very funny or a very famous Homer Simpson quote, when he's gambling. And he says to his friends, "don't try and eat these so called chips". And he's eating the gambling chips. So again, you know, this is taking this is taking confusion with chips to a whole new level
I do wonder if the red and the black chips have a different flavor, though. So that's certainly got me wondering.
I think they taste like people's hands. I think I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend it.
Yeah, that's not wrong.
Gross. Yeah. Just imagine all the germs and stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Mozzarella kind of cheese? No, not possibly not.
So they are the kind of expressions that I can think of chip off the old block chippy a carpenter, the chips are down, when your chips when the chips are on the table, all these sorts of expressions as well. So coming back to coming back to this expression for today. Chip off the old block? What does that actually mean?
Chip off the old block will be something that oh, there will basically be someone who's who sort of like that, that type of person. Right? So that that the block is one set of characteristics? And you seem to have that type? Perhaps. Right?
So I would I would call a block like it would be one of your parents. So maybe both, yeah. Both of your parents. And so then a chip is usually you know, a child. And so that that's sort of representative of your definitely made from that, from that same Block
Yeah. Having the character of that style, right. So it's, it's a very interesting phrase, actually. But it does work. Yeah.
Are there any other like similar expressions to this that you can think of in English?
Oh, probably chip on your shoulder would be a good one.
Chip on your shoulder. So again, that's a chip based expression. What is it? So what does this one mean?
Basically, meaning that you sort of got a grudge doesn't it? Have a grudge? You got a bit of a grudge? Yeah. Sort of angry against someone? Yes. You have something some bad, bad, bad feeling against someone or someone's done you wrong. But whether you imagine that or whether in real life, but you're sort of like angry against someone or something right, exactly. A chip on your shoulder.
On your shoulder. Good. I'm thinking of a similar one to chip off the old block. It would be an apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
That's true.
Don't be the other way saying.
Yeah, I mean, apples can make good chips too, though. So that works both ways. That's a good one. That's true. Banana chips are very much ???
I remember from my childhood there was a band Shonen Knife that had the song banana chips.
Oh, goodness. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah.
So what about in Japanese is there is there a similar expression that you can ??? to chip off the old block or a similar expression to any of these?
Well, honestly, to be honest with you, I don't really know how many of these sort of phrases I suppose. But in Japanese, I do feel like these phrases are not really that often used, I feel, at least not in not in the context of the people around me. But then again, they do level the language towards me. So that is something that we I do have to take into context. I'll probably say that the example chip off the old block or, or someone is has a grudge against someone. It's an interesting thing. I think that in terms of everyday communication, at least with me, or the people around me, it's not really negative people do try to avoid very negative words in Japanese. The more neutral the language, the better. The more elegant or considerate people take it. Perhaps a good phrase is the cookie or Yeoman meaning to read the air. Okay, and that sounds very, very specific in English. It sounds like read the room, but it's actually quite different. So it's very confusing for language learners. So I thought it was the same as read the room but it's not read the room. It's something more or more more like. Just don't disturb anyone. Don't, don't, don't say anything that will disturb the air in the room.
That's a very Japanese thing.
Yeah, just go and settle in.
And if we were going to talk about some of the different formality levels in Japanese compared to Australian English, we would need four or five different episodes to discuss. I'm still
learning them. I have no clue. So honestly, I'm not even the person talk about that. Honestly,
Australian English is fine, because all you have to use is the informal language because if you don't use the informal language, then people will wonder what what's going on.
They'll be like, Ah, you're quite a chip off the old block then
They will be very suspicious about what are you up to if you start using formal language, you would be quite suss, absolutely.
You are quite suss, mate. Yeah, if you use the formal words instant instant dislike. I think for most australians, it's like okay, what did I do, excuse me,
Which must be which must be horrendously confusing for for Japanese learners of English. And a lot of different people around the world.
It's really, really interesting. I would say probably my brazenness as an Australian comes across the best in Osaka and Hiroshima. So to any Australians listening if you're coming to Japan come to these prefectures they love Australians here they have a more light hearted light like minded light hearted approach they might put on the Japanese look. But once they like you, they are far more Australian than they would like to believe.
I think this is a really good tip, go rural in Japan, which is 20 minutes out of the city.
Yeah, just go to Hiroshima, just go to Osaka these days, if you're gonna go to a big city go to Osaka. And they're laid back there that they're wonderful. So they're real chips off of the old blocks there. So there's no issue there. They'll they'll take it with you to say something bad. They'll be like, that's alright. Like it's okay. So, yeah,
Awesome. Awesome. Well, it's been fantastic having having you on the show talking about your, your worldly experiences and your experiences having me on Yeah, teaching in Japan is not a problem at all. Welcome back. Anytime I think your insight into, into into being sort of multilingual is, is quite fascinating. And certainly having Yeah, definitely. Definitely is and you've given us some really good tips and reinforce some very good tips for our learners out there as well. Our listeners out there as well.
Very happy if I can do that. Definitely it's worth keeping it keeping it going. Even if you've had a bit of a lull. Just keep pushing. You're gonna get that like going up that hill right, Kate Bush. Follow that song
Came back into into fashion last year
Oh, when I heard that. I'm like it's a new song. I'm like shut up children like
it's like no exactly. From the year I was born or whatever. Yeah.
It's lovely. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, so for all those for all those listeners out there. Just a reminder that there are transcripts available on our website that you can access in the members in the members area. So if you're interested in getting the transcripts for those then don't forget to sign up. But for us here at the Australians Teach English podcast, podcast by language learners with language learners for language learners, it's us saying hooroo.
Bye. Bye bye.
And konichiwa.
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